This story by Jennifer Shutt appeared on Colorado Newsline on August 9, 2024.
President Joe Biden on Friday celebrated the number of veterans enrolled in VA health care and benefits as part of a law he signed nearly two years ago, though he said more work must be done for troops who were stationed at a base in Uzbekistan in the early 2000s.
“Two years ago, I signed the bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins (PACT) Act enacting the most significant expansion of benefits and health care for toxic exposed veterans and their survivors in over thirty years,” Biden wrote in a statement.
The law, which spent years gaining the support it needed in Congress, expanded health care coverage and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances like Agent Orange and open-air burn pits.
To date, more than 1 million veterans and 10,000 survivors of veterans who died have begun to receive disability benefits stemming from the law, accounting for approximately $6.8 billion in earned benefits. More than $122 million of that money has gone to recipients in Colorado.
Biden said in his statement that his administration would continue studying veterans’ other illnesses for a “presumptive status,” which could ensure them access to health care and benefits without having to prove to the VA that their conditions are directly linked to their military service.
The VA is also planning to “close loopholes for certain veterans exposed to harmful toxins during their military service,” Biden wrote, without elaborating.
A White House fact sheet says the VA is looking into providing benefits for 16,000 veterans who served at Karshi-Khanabad in Uzbekistan, also known as K2, between 2001 and 2005, since there were “several contaminants…in either the air, water, soil, or soil gas.”
“VA plans to take steps to consider veterans who served in Uzbekistan as Persian Gulf Veterans so that any veteran who served at K2 and who experience undiagnosed illness and medically unexplained chronic multi-symptom illnesses can get the benefits they deserve,” it states. “VA will also create new training materials for claims processors and examiners on the hazards identified at K2.”
Since the law — known as the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act or the PACT Act — took effect nearly two years ago, the VA says that 739,421 veterans have enrolled in its health care programs.
Of that total, 333,767 veterans are covered under the new law, including those who served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the wars that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.
The numbers released Friday are significantly higher than they were when Biden gave a speech on the law’s one-year anniversary. The VA said at the time, which was one year ago, that 408,581 veterans had filed their claims and that 348,469 of those had been approved.
But Friday’s announcement is somewhat similar to one Biden made in May when he cheered the VA granting 1 million claims under the law.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said on a call with reporters at the time the law had led to “more than $5.7 billion in earned benefits for veterans.”
The exact number of veterans with approved PACT Act claims as of Friday stood at 1,005,341 while the number of survivors approved had reached 10,777.
A total of 1,251,720 veterans so far have completed filing Pact Act claims as have 21,416 survivors.
The VA has an interactive dashboard that provides veterans with information about how to apply for health care and benefits under the PACT Act as well as how many claims have been submitted.
The VA has a calendar of in-person events that can be found here. Veterans or their family members can also call the VA at 800-698-2411 to inquire about PACT Act benefits.